November 1, 2011 Dear Provost Leslie and Vice Provosts Ritter and Keller, On behalf of the Academic Counselors Association (ACA), I’d like to thank you for soliciting the opinion of our group on the topic of four-year graduation rates at The University of Texas at Austin. In such a short time frame, and during one of the busiest times of the year, we felt that the quickest and most effective way to gather information was in the form of a survey. Attached, you will find the answer-by-answer results of the survey and a synopsis of the results that were put together by ACA’s President-Elect, Nathan Vickers, and the ACA Advisory Council. This group is appointed by the President-Elect and is comprised of ACA members from academic units, advising and otherwise, across campus. From the results, you can see that there are wide and varying opinions on the issue of four-year graduation rates, some of which include the question of whether or not this is really an issue at all. As student advocates, I think our concern in focusing solely on graduation rates is that it comes at the expense of student education and career goals. Do we want to be perceived as an institution that limits a student’s curiosity and desire for knowledge in exchange for a better graduation rate? As a whole, I think you’ll see that ACA agrees that there are things we can do to improve our four-year graduation rates. We agree that mandatory advising would be beneficial to keeping students on a four-year graduation track. We agree that there should perhaps be a limit on the number of times a student can change major and on when a student can change major. But we also agree that, within reason, the needs and goals of our students should come first. We should not sacrifice a student’s college experience for the sake of improving a statistic. ACA is grateful that you’ve given us the chance to share our voice. We hope that the information we are providing is helpful to you and that you continue to include us in the ongoing discussions regarding this pivotal matter. Sincerely, Theresa C. Thomas ACA President Senior Academic Advisor School of Journalism CMA 6.146, A1000 (512) 471-6938 theresa.thomas@austin.utexas.edu

Mandatory Advising As is evident from the survey, we feel this is an important and integral tool in improving four-year graduation rates. Although the suggestions of frequency vary, the issue of advisor to student ratio will be an issue for many student services offices. How does one advisor see her caseload of 400 students each semester while balancing her other duties such as working on course scheduling, setting seat limits and class restrictions, teaching two FIGs, etc.? This could require additional staff as well as an overhaul of how some offices manage their student traffic. Changing and/or Adding Majors Overwhelmingly, we feel that students should be able to change or add a major, even if they can’t complete the degree in four years. To prevent a student exceeding four years, however, we would need to implement significant changes in how we work with undecided students or those who change their majors more frequently. This may be in the form of a required career or major planning course or in more frequent advising. A limit of some sort is recommended, based on their number of hours or semesters completed at UT Austin or in the percentage of degree already completed. Concurrent Enrollment Colleges with rules prohibiting concurrent enrollment should be required to revise such policies. There are many high demand courses that are historically difficult for UT students to enroll in, and if it is with the intent of keeping a student on track for their four-year graduation, we should encourage them to enroll in these courses outside of UT. The students should not be penalized for doing what they must to complete necessary degree requirements in a timely manner. Graduation If a student meets his degree requirements, he should be required to graduate unless he is continuing to enroll to meet the requirements for a certificate program, pre-health professions, etc. We should not penalize students for working toward completion of certificate programs that we so strongly encourage them to pursue. If a student meets the requirements for graduation and chooses to enroll in further coursework that is not to complete certification or prerequisites, we recommend that some sort of tax be placed on them, such as higher tuition, later registration, reduced access to campus resources, etc.

Increasing Graduation Rates The way that I understand graduation rates to be calculated is fundamentally wrong. A student’s rate of graduation should count toward the college from which they graduated and not toward the college in which they began. I’m not sure that this is within UT Austin’s control, but this would solve many of our problems. We feel that there are many things to be done to assist students with graduating in a more timely manner such as financial incentives that are realistically attainable, emphasizing four-year graduation at New Student Orientation, and making advising and career services more available to students not enrolled in their college of choice. Many factors contribute to a delayed graduation for students in addition to changing and adding majors. Some of these factors relate to the transfer process (whether internal or external), class availability and restrictions, and developmental or academic readiness.

Introduction: As The University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) strives to improve its four-year graduation rate, both the Executive Committee and Advisory Board for the Academic Counselors Association (ACA) created a survey asking all current ACA members to answer a series of questions. The survey allowed ACA members to comment and provide both feedback and ideas to improve UT-Austin’s four-year graduation rate. Within this statement, the survey will be discussed and its findings provided, as well as the ideas and points most often mentioned regarding ways in which UT-Austin can improve its four-year graduation rate. The results of the survey will also be attached to the end of the statement, including all comments from respondents. In addition to the comments already collected and presented by ACA-President Theresa Thomas, ACA members provided additional comments to review. While the results will show that 127 respondents took part in the survey, not all of them actually answered the questions. Despite this, 79 to 83 ACA members answered the questions providing a number of different responses and comments. Utilizing a survey such as this seemed to be the most efficient way to collect the myriad responses from a diverse population of advisors and student affairs professionals. Discussion: The following discussion will attempt to summarize the results of the survey as well as summarize the comments made for those questions allowing comments. The percentages and summarization of the comments is not to editorialize the results of survey, or to spin this statement toward any particular viewpoint, rather, to collect, in as concise a way as possible, the different viewpoints expressed. When asked if advising should be mandatory for students, 71% of the 83 respondents said yes. Respondents were allowed to comment, if they answered yes, on how often students should be required to see an advisor, and 60 of the 83 respondents commented. The comments varied, but many of them stated that students should be required to see an advisor at least once per semester, with those students who are academically at risk, new to a major, planning to change majors, or new to UT-Austin being seen more frequently to discuss goals and progress toward degree completion. Comments also mentioned that advising resources in some advising units might not be able to advise all of their students given the student to advisor ratio. One comment mentioned the use of online advising worksheets as a way for students to take an active role in preparing for advising. Currently advising is not mandatory for all students at UT-Austin; rather, it differs between advising units on campus, some require students to be advised, others do not. Nearly all respondents, 90% of 83 respondents, agreed that students should be allowed to change their major if doing so prolonged graduation beyond four years while 83% of 82 respondents agreed that students should be allowed to add a simultaneous degree or double major if doing so would increase their time at UT-Austin beyond four years. Respondents were also asked if a limit should be placed on the number of times a student can change her/his major, responses showed a more even split between respondents, 51% saying yes and 49% saying no, of 83 total respondents. 68 respondents offered comments on this topic. Comments seemed to center around five years being a limit to the amount of time students should be allowed to stay at UT-Austin if a student changes her/his major. Although, comments from respondents did mention, more than once, that students should be allowed as much time as needed to finish any degree(s) they wish to finish. Respondents were also asked if there should be a point at which a student can no longer change their major, and 57% of 81 respondents said yes.

48 respondents offered comments on this topic. Comments from respondents seemed to reflect that after a certain number of hours completed, generally 60 to 90 hours, and/or a certain percentage of the degree is completed that students should not be allowed to change their major. Most of the colleges and schools at UT-Austin require students to apply if they wish to change their major to a department within that college or add a major from that college as a simultaneous degree. Within some colleges, students can change their major as many times as they would like, given the change is to a major within the same college. 90% of total respondents agreed all UT-Austin colleges should allow concurrent enrollment during the fall, spring, or summer semesters. Currently, not all UT-Austin colleges and schools allow students to take courses concurrently during any of the semesters in which they are enrolled, or require special permission to do so. On this note, an even larger percentage, 94%, of respondents agreed that advisors should advise students to enroll in non-UT-Austin courses if taking them will allow the student to graduate within four years. 65% of 80 respondents agreed that students should be required to graduate when they have reached four years in residence and their degree requirements met. Generally, UT-Austin students are not required to graduate when degree requirements are met; rather, degrees are not usually certified unless the student applies to graduate with their respective college or school. When asked if students should be allowed to continue taking courses, once fours years in residence and degree requirements have been met, to fulfill requirements for a certificate program, pre-health professions requirements, or graduate school prerequisites, 91% of the 81 respondents agreed that students should be allowed to continue taking courses. Survey questions then allowed respondents to mark possible penalties to be assessed if a student exceeds her/his four years in residence. All of the options provided by the survey can be seen on Question 13, but the top three options chosen from Question 13 are listed. Of the 83 respondents, 61% chose increased tuition as a possible penalty for those students who exceed four years in residence, and degree holder/non-degree seeker registration time, chosen second with 57%. This particular option would possibly mean that a student might not have access to registration until the very end of the registration cycle. With 37%, no Longhorn All Sports Package was chosen third. Respondents were also able to add other options that were not available on the survey. Only 16 comments were made regarding this topic, one of which stated, that low priority advising for students who are required to be advised, as a potential penalty, as well as limited access to restricted courses, and recreational facilities. One comment asked whether exceptions could be made if a student was extending time at UT-Austin beyond four years to complete prerequisites. Several options were given from which respondents could chose all options they feel would improve UT-Austin’s four-year graduation rate. The top three options chosen by the 83 respondents were: adjust department curriculum to eliminate bottlenecks at 66%, a financial incentive for students to graduate in four years at 64%, and emphasizing four-graduation at orientation with 58%. The remaining options, and their percentages, can be seen in Question 14. Comments for this particular question also mentioned avoiding bottlenecks as well as making courses cheaper at UT-Austin during the summer sessions. Making it clear that a penalty of some kind may be assessed if a student exceeds four years in residence at UT-Austin and creating clearly defined four-year plans, even for flexible degree plans, was also mentioned by respondents as possible ways in which UT-Austin can improve four-year graduation rates.

Finally, respondents were asked to rank the top five issues preventing students from graduating in four years. Based on 73 responses, study abroad, co-curricular or extra activities, top 10%, class restrictions, and external transfer issues were chosen as the top five of all options given on the survey. While there was an option for respondents to choose other, there was no space for comments for this question. Again, all options given on the survey and their response rate are available. An open-ended question asking respondents to list any other options that would improve UT-Austin’s four-year graduation rate concluded the survey. 32 respondents provided a response to this question. The responses varied, and some were quite detailed and lengthy, providing feedback and suggestions for the university. There are too many, and they vary too greatly, to summarize the comments here. The comments provided by members are attached to this statement on Question 16. Conclusion: To reiterate, the information provided in this statement is by no means an editorialized collection of comments, rather, a statement of what seemed to be the most salient points expressed by respondents. Collecting the variety of ideas and suggestions cannot be an easy feat, and the hope is this provides some insight as to the opinions and suggestions from ACA members to improve UT-Austin’s four-year graduation rate.